Sniffing somebody else's sweat could help to treat social anxiety

New research saw armpit perspiration taken from volunteers who watched either happy or scary film clips, before the samples were used alongside more conventional mindfulness techniques that help treat the disorder.

The study revealed that mindfulness was more effective when combined with sniffing the body odour.

The research involved 48 women who suffered from social anxiety, some of whom were exposed to clean air and others to body odour.

Patients who completed a mindfulness session while exposed to body odours saw a 39 per cent reduction in social anxiety, but those who had a session in clean air had just a 17 per cent decrease in their anxiety scores.

Elisa Vigna, who led the study for the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, admits that the findings came as a "surprise".

She said: "We found that the women in the group exposed to sweat from people who had been watching funny or scary movies, responded better to mindfulness therapy than those who hadn't been exposed.

"We were a little surprised to find that the emotional state of the person producing the sweat didn't differ in treatment outcomes - sweat produced while someone was happy had the same effect as someone who had been scared by a movie clip."

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